Someone wants to view my house and I don’t want them to. How do I phrase it with estate agent?

[Myhousemy]

I’m selling my house and have an open day on Saturday.

I do not want one of the viewers, Mr Smith (not real name) to view my house but how do I tell the estate agent this without getting in to too much detail? Reasons I do not want Mr Smith viewing my house:

He viewed it several weeks ago. Estate agent said he was going to make an offer but was carefully thinking about what to offer as he felt certain work needed to be done. No offer was made so I think he’s a time waster.

Mr Smith has a dd in the same class as my dd and when he viewed my house he brought his dd with him. My dd was upset at the thought of this girl in her class going in her room, seeing all her things etc. It’s obvious my dd lives here as there are school photos on the walls etc

I am confident my house will sell as we have lots of viewers lined up and house is in good area etc We have spent a lot of money on new kitchen/bathroom etc so I guess there is an element of annoyance at Mr Smith saying he “needs to work out how much to knock off asking price for renovations” - estate agents words.

should I just tell estate agent to cancel Mr Smith and if they ask just not give a reason?

If you’re still on the market after several weeks as you say, I would be accepting second viewers. Surely your daughter has had children round from school before? Had other children in her room?

I am struggling with the fact that your daughter is upset that one of her classmates saw her bedroom. By the time my dd was 13 I think nearly all her classmates had seen her bedroom. I'd have known the families as well and don't think a Mr Smith would have dared take the piss.

All you need to say to the agent is "this is my house and I shall chose to whom to sell it. Mr Smith has seen it once, I would like the open day to be for first time viewers".

Moving can be very unsettling for young children. We moved when mine were just 7 and 5 and they couldn't really understand that 'our house' wasn't 'ours' anymore, even though we'd only moved half a mile up the road, same school etc.

If you're confident that your house will sell, just say that you're not considering Mr Smith as a potential buyer. Ask the estate agent to mutter something vague about 'an offer from someone else'.

Estate agents generally don't want to annoy either the seller or someone who might buy another property through them.

Bizarre. Let him view twice. How do you know he's not going to put in a great offer? He may well not, but serious buyers come for second viewings. The point of selling a house is letting people to view the house, taking g your emotions out if it, and seeking a whole range of offers so that you can pick the best. You can't second guess people before they make offers.

Then you won’t be buying nice houses in sort-after parts of London. One 15 minute viewing is standard around where we are and places are sold after 1 day of viewing.

Well presumably because Smith Jnr has been saying nasty things to the OP’s daughter, but also our estate agent gave us a list of names from the viewings partly so if we sold privately to one of them they had proof we found them through the agent and could still claim their fee.

Good point. Especially a teenager who may think of things you haven’t.

Just tell the agent that you won't accept offers under the asking price. If he tell that to 'Mr Smith' he may not want to come anyway!

Oh for fuck’s sake, why are people over-complicating things?! All the OP needed to say - and what she actually HAS said - is ‘I don’t want to deal with this person’!

THE. END!!!

I can sympathise with this viewer. We were once shown around by the actual owner rather than an estate agent and it was so awkward. Another house we viewed with an estate agent but the owner was sitting in his dressing down and slippers in the living room, also awkward. You don’t feel comfortable looking around the house at all, don’t feel as though you can comment on things in any negative way at all and have to paint some sort of fake smile on throughout.

Having said that, I don’t blame you for turning Mr Smith away. He sounds like a massive CF and I can totally understand why your DD was upset.

We sold our previous home to a couple with a child in my son’s class. He was 9 at the time and was upset that a member of his class who he didn’t interact with was going to have his bedroom . I don’t think YABU .

@mam0918 It’s got nothing to do with parenting and everything to do with being practical.

When I was house hunting last year I looked at 20+ properties.

I had a spreadsheet which recorded things like number of rooms/bathrooms, square feet, parking/driveway/garage, size of garden, distance from school/work/town, bus routes, crime stats, council boroughs, expected council tax, forecast mortgage repayments, forecast renovation/repair/redecoration cost etc.for comparison, as well as a checklist of desirable features.

I’m curious to know how you believe I would have benefited further by taking a teenager on my viewings to tell me if they liked the house or not??

I’m curious to know how you believe I would have benefited further by taking a teenager on my viewings to tell me if they liked the house or not??

Are you? Are you really??

Just tell EA that you don't want Mr Smith to view your house again, and if they are unprofessional enough to ask why, tell them that's a private matter.

My house is about to go on the market and I already have interest from someone I wouldn't sell to in 100 years - I'd rather the house crumbled into dust - and I'm going to make clear to the EA that he is not to be allowed a viewing and any offer he makes (he's been after the place for years) is to be rejected.

I'm in the camp that thinks your daughter is perfectly reasonable in how she feels about Mr Smith and his daughter, by the way!

Mr Smith has made it clear he wants to negotiate on the price. You don’t believe you will have to do that so, at the moment, there is no reason for Mr Smith to view again.

I have been refused viewings and had a offer declined. I have everything in place and the money to buy. I also have a mixed heritage family. I personally would like someone to be pleasant to us.
However I would decline Mr Smith due to the SM post. His daughter needs to be told she is out of order. We had a similar thing years ago, I could have sold tickets like the National Trust. Large country house that we had renovated. 38 time slot viewings in a weekend. Bloody nosey sods.
Stand firm OP.

@Myhousemy agent sounds awful. I’ve always shown viewers round. Personally, I’d not be doing as others have said - telling the agent your daughter was uncomfortable might have caused more potential bullying issues. I’d have covered some stuff on her walls, let Mr Smith view again and kept it in mind that you wouldn’t be accepting his low offers - you will probably sell to someone else hopefully during open day. Also if he does offer you can say something like ‘thanks for your offer but we won’t be reducing the price for the time being as we feel it’s competitive’. Or even ‘since you don’t want me involved in the viewings and it’s an open day, I want it to be ‘no kids’.

@Sartre - I agree about the awkwardness, not because I fancy a rummage but because I would like to get a feel for the place and air my views freely to my husband and don’t want to insult the owner. We looked at one where the owner stood in the doorway of every room not saying anything and every other room seem to have one of her children in without warning. Turns out it was a divorce, took them 2 years to sell that house.

I don’t think that I would buy a house without viewing it twice. Banning second viewings on a blanket basis would be more strange than asking the estate agent not to waste time with Mr Smith, wouldn’t it?

I have never, and would never, buy a house based purely on a first visit that's for sure. But the fact that Mr Smith has already made it clear that he wants to start negotiating because he needs to renovate the house is sufficient to say your not interested. You expect people to try and negotiate a few thousand off but clearly he is looking for more. As you say - that's not your problem.

I can fully understand the issue of your daughter, but the reality is that people need to see all the rooms. She maybe just needs to ensure everything is put away and maybe move some things like poster/pictures etc if she feels worried about them.

In terms of agents doing the viewings, that is entirely your choice. My last house sale I dealt with all the viewings when they arrived and the house I bought the couple did the viewings. I did have to sell my parents house after they passed away and the agents did those viewings but that was simply because it was more convenient for me at the time.

I hope the open day works and you get a good offer from it - fingers crossed for you 😀(why is there no fingers crossed emoji !!)

I have bought properties in 'hot' markets and always had 2nd viewings before making an offer.

Is that to say people have put offers in on houses after 1 viewing and then not seen inside it again until moving in day?

Buy to rent properties, I understand, 1 viewing might be enough but houses that will be your home - would you only visit once?

I’ve never put an offer in before a second viewing. I thought that was perfectly normal. You are under no obligation to accept any offer, so again, I don’t see the problem.

the issue seems to be around your DD and the classmate. If you’re selling an average family home, in an area suited to families, it isn’t inconceivable that people you know may want to purchase.

There’s some backstory here. You can’t seriously be completely discounting a potential buyer because your daughter got upset her schoolmate saw it? Presumably you’re on Rightmove so anyone can see your house - bedrooms toilet and kitchen!

I understand that in some places buyers have to buy start after the first viewing or they won't get a property, but the OP says her house has been on sale for several weeks now, which would suggest that she doesn't live in one of those areas. In which case, a second viewing would seem like a sensible thing to do before someone makes a major financial investment. Just because no-one second views where some posters live because property is in very high demand, doesn't mean than anyone who wants to do it anywhere else is a timewaster.

Seems like the idea from other posters about only having new viewers is the best idea.

You couldn't bloody pay me to live in the shithole that is london lol.

Not that that matters because OPs house has been on the market for weeks without offers, even out here in the northern countryside that means there little real interest (so being picky is stupid).